No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem
by SistaSouljah
Summary: Response to challenge. NS.


Disclaimer: If it's familiar to you, it doesn't belong to me.

A/N: For my fellow Snickers, in response to a challenge.

* * *

"Take off your shirt."

Under any other circumstance, Sara's request would have been a dream come true for Nick. And he wouldn't have been ashamed to admit it. He knew any guy would agree that it was impossible not to have these kinds of thoughts, working with someone as gorgeous as Sara, side by side, every night. But at that moment, with the look of death she was giving him, the only thoughts he had involved deciding whether he should turn left or right when he ran for his life. "Excuse me?" he looked down at her with a puzzled expression.

"Take off your shirt," she repeated, clearly annoyed that she had to repeat herself.

"Why?" Nick found it almost comical that he was asking this.

"Because my tank top is sheer and it's white. I'm not walking around like this," she replied, only her head and shoulders above water.

"You should have thought about that before you jumped in the pool." He flashed her his pearly whites as he stood at the edge of the pool.

She continued to glare up at him with her evil eye, knowing that Nick knew full well that she didn't jump.

"Alright, alright," Nick conceded. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to her.

Normally, the sight of Nick's chiseled torso would have made Sara's heart skip a beat or two, as it had on several previous occasions when she'd walked in on him changing in the locker room, but at the moment her anger had temporarily pushed aside any inappropriate thoughts. "Turn around," she instructed him.

Nick rolled his eyes and did as he was told. She stood up, quickly peeled off her wet tank top and put Nick's shirt on before stepping out of the pool.

"Well what am I supposed to where?" Nick looked at her.

Without a word, Sara shoved her wet tank top into Nick's chest before leaving the backyard through a side gate. She exhaled audibly as she tried to keep her anger in check and focus on processing their crime scene, but she found it extremely difficult, considering. It was just past seven in the morning, and she was starting the back end of a double shift, her second that week. Despite the early hour, the temperature was already pushing one hundred, as Vegas was in the middle of its first heat wave of the summer. And to top it all off, she'd fallen into the pool and would have to finish processing wearing Nick's shirt, which she didn't like for two reasons. One, it was hard to concentrate with the faint scent of Nick surrounding her, drifting from his shirt to her nose, and two, she knew her tank top would have been a lot cooler than a baggy t-shirt. She was in such a foul mood that she didn't even realize that her dip in the pool was rather refreshing and had cooled her off a bit.

Nick watched Sara as she stormed off. It wasn't his fault that she'd fallen in the pool. Well not entirely. She shouldn't have been crouching so close to the ledge, with her shoes practically hanging over the water. And she should have been more aware of her surroundings, so she wouldn't have gotten startled when he'd walked into the backyard and crouched down next to her and asked what she'd found. He sighed as he dropped her tank top on the cement and crouched down to get a better look at whatever Sara had been looking at before she'd fallen in. He saw the spot, a dark substance, not blood though, on the underside of the ledge. He leaned in to get a better look.

"You got something?" Detective Vega asked as he crouched down next to Nick.

Nick hadn't heard Vega come out of the house and walk out to the pool, and consequently, just like Sara, Nick too was startled, lost his balance, and fell in.

"Sorry. You alright?" Vega asked when Nick's head popped up from the water.

"Yeah," Nick muttered as he climbed out. He knew Sara was going to really give it to him when she saw him all wet. "You wouldn't be willing to lend me your shirt, would you?" Nick quipped.

"You want my shirt?" Vega asked, not getting the joke.

"Never mind." Nick's soggy socks sloshed inside his boots as he headed for the front of the house to see what Sara was up to.

Sara was still upset that Nick had caused her to fall in the pool, but she couldn't contain her smile when she saw Nick emerge from the side gate and walk down the driveway, his jeans visibly darker because they were wet. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I jumped into the pool," he smirked. "What are we looking at here?" Nick nodded toward the vehicle Sara was standing next to, wanting to finish up as soon as possible so he could get out of his wet clothes. Although, he figured if they stood outside long enough the heat would probably dry them.

"I think we've got blood here, on this mud flap." Sara leaned down next to a flat tire of the pickup truck and pointed to the mud flap with a silhouette of a cow on it. Sara thought this was a little strange, but it was better than those mud flaps with those busty naked women.

"Okay, good. Let's swab it and get out of here. I need a new pair of socks," he practically whined. He hated wet socks.

They finished up and were quickly on their way back to the lab. They both agreed that they'd rather turn the car's air conditioning on and freeze in their wet clothes than leave it off and sweat while they attempted to dry off.

They did their best to ignore the stares as they walked down the halls of CSI, but they could hear people mumbling and whispering to each other, undoubtedly wondering why Sara was wearing Nick's shirt and Nick wasn't wearing any shirt at all and was walking barefoot, his socks stuffed into his boots he was carrying.

After checking in their evidence they headed straight for the locker room. Catherine and Warrick were both inside when Nick and Sara walked in, getting ready to leave after having to work a few extra hours to finish up their case. Neither Catherine nor Warrick said anything at first when they saw the state that Nick and Sara were in, they only looked at each other and exchanged an amused glance.

"Dammit," Nick muttered under his breath as he dug through his locker. He turned to Warrick. "You got an extra pair of socks?"

"Uh, yeah." He reached into his locker and tossed the socks to Nick.

When it was clear that neither Nick nor Sara were in the mood to discuss what happened, Catherine decided it was best that she and Warrick leave without asking. They'd hear about it later. "We'll see you guys later," she said as she pushed Warrick toward the door.

"Yeah, later," Warrick echoed.

"Yeah," both Nick and Sara mumbled without looking at them.

"Sorry again about the pool thing," Nick said when he and Sara were alone.

"No you're not."

"Okay, so I'm not entirely. Come on, you don't think I've ever had dreams of Sara Sidle in a wet t-shirt?" he teased.

Sara scoffed at Nick's sexist remark but had to shield herself from him with her open locker door to avoid revealing the smile that crept to her lips. "Well I'm not sorry that you fell in the pool. Serves you right." Of course, revenge wasn't the only reason she wasn't sorry. Like she'd never had dreams of seeing Nick shirtless, beads of water on his bare chest glistening in the morning sunlight.

Nick put on a dry shirt and Warrick's socks and tied his shoes. "Let's get a move on, daylight's burning," he said to Sara as he slammed his locker shut and left the locker room without waiting for her.

She tossed Nick's shirt into her locker and pulled her own over her head as she let out a big yawn. She knew she definitely needed coffee before she got to work, so she headed for the break room. When she got there she found Nick standing at the counter, dropping ice cubes into two cups of coffee.

"We can't drink hot coffee in the middle of a heat wave, I don't care how cool it is inside this building," he said as he stuck his arm out to offer her the cup before she could make her way to the coffee machine.

"Thanks." Not that it was unusual for Nick to pour her coffee, but she half wondered if he was trying to get back on her good side after the pool incident, so she wouldn't shut him out while they were trying to work their case together.

Nick quickly downed the rest of his iced coffee and dumped the ice in the sink before tossing his cup in the trash. "So, where do you wanna start?"

"With that mini tape recorder we found," Sara answered.

"I'll be in post then."

They went their separate ways and quickly got to work. After dropping by the A/V Lab to see when the tape would be analyzed, Sara started sifting through the rest of the things they'd collected at the scene. She wrinkled her brow in confusion when she came across the padded envelope Nick had taken from the victim's desk. Inside the envelope, addressed to the victim with no return address, were a triple A battery, silly putty, a newspaper clipping, and a business card. The newspaper clipping didn't appear to be of anything in particular, the only things on either side of the paper were ads for a pizza parlor boasting their trademark spicy pepperoni and a bakery that sold day old bread for only fifty cents. The business card, however, was potentially useful; it had a picture of a flute on it, with the name and number of the owner of a musical instrument rental store.

"Hey," Nick poked his head into the layout room, interrupting Sara's thoughts. "Jacqui just paged me, said she's got something for us on that print from the tape recorder."

"Great."

"You stuck working overtime too?" Nick asked as he and Sara walked into the print lab.

"Yeah. Everyone from dayshift is apparently 'sick' today," Jacqui explained, her tone indicating she didn't buy it.

Nick smiled sympathetically. "You got an ID off our print?"

"The victim's?" Sara asked.

"Nope. Jonathan DeSilvio."

"DeSilvio Bakery," Sara said.

"Huh?" Nick looked at her.

"There was an ad in that envelope for DeSilvio Bakery."

"Local?" Nick asked.

"Yeah."

"Well let's go then. Thanks Jacqui," Nick called out over his shoulder, halfway out the door.

Sara sighed. How did he have so much energy?

Somehow, she managed to make it through the rest of the day. Luckily their case was cut and dry; they'd processed and analyzed everything by three that afternoon and decided to go home, saving all the paperwork for later. When Sara got home she barely had enough strength to change out of her clothes before she fell into bed. She knew Grissom wasn't expecting them back when their scheduled shift was supposed to start, so she was looking forward to catching some shuteye. But with her circadian rhythm out of whack, as it was so many times, she'd woken up only a few hours later. She knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep so she decided she might as well head to the lab. She quickly showered and grabbed a bottled yogurt smoothie from the fridge before heading out.

While she sipped her smoothie and waited at a traffic light, she realized she still had Nick's shirt in her bag in the backseat. She'd brought it home because she thought she'd wash it for him before returning it, telling him she did it as a thank you for letting her wear it, while telling herself it was more of a thank you for giving her the opportunity to ogle his body.

On an impulse, she made a U-turn when the light turned green, heading for Nick's house. So she returned his shirt dirty. She didn't think he'd mind that much.

"Hey," Nick greeted her when he answered his door, looking slightly sleepy eyed, wearing only the pants he was wearing earlier that day.

Sara immediately realized she had woken him up. He probably fell asleep in his clothes. "I woke you. Sorry," she managed to apologize, but her thoughts were of Nick's bare chest staring her in the face. Didn't he know there was only so much skin she could stand to see in one day without going into sensory overload?

"Don't worry about it," Nick replied, trying not to stare at her. She was wearing a tank top, which was neither wet nor see through, but he couldn't complain. Because of the pool incident, not only had he thought about her all day, but he had just been dreaming about her, and he decided it was much better to see her now in person than in his dreams.

"Uh, I brought your shirt. I was, uh, gonna wash it for you, but I thought I'd give it back now, in case you needed it right away, or something," she stammered out an explanation.

"Thanks."

When Sara handed Nick his shirt, their hands touched, which was the spark that finally lit the fire. They were instantly drawn to one another, and suddenly they were both doing what had been running through their minds since seven that morning, nearly twelve hours previously. Nick managed to close his front door before they stumbled, in the midst of a passionate lip lock, into Nick's living room, finding their way onto Nick's couch.

Sara had managed to unbuckle Nick's belt and unzip his jeans, while Nick's hands had worked their way up under her shirt to her bra before they finally broke apart, starved for oxygen.

"I know this is kind of backwards, but do you think you wanna go out, sometime?" Nick asked, trying to catch his breath as he lay poised on top of her.

"Yeah, sure. Later," Sara hastily replied, reaching behind his head to pull him down to her. She was having too much fun at the moment to think about anything else except for the sensation of Nick's soft lips and skillful hands against her skin.

The End


End file.
